Acting coach

An acting coach or drama coach is a teacher who trains performers-typically film, television, theater and, musical theater actors -and gives them advice and mentoring to enable them to improve their acting and dramatic performances, prepare for auditions and prepare better for roles .

Qualifications and roles

Acting coaches need to have “talent … for reading people, all their utterances and body language .” [1] Acting coaches have been called “people whisperers”, a reference to ” horse whisperers ” who help to train animals. [1] Acting coach Ivana Chubbuck states that one of her roles is to ensure that “every actor … must know what character is in a scene-to win someone’s love, respect, sympathy, whatever-and then must have a ruthlessness about achieving the objective. ” [1] Chubbuck works with actors to help them connect with the emotion inside the character. [1] Acting coaches also “…Acting coach and actor Woodell-Mascall is “… skilled at zeroing in on young people to improve their performance.” Woodell-Mascall tells a student actor to “… really think about who [the character] is and what it’s feeling.” [2] She provides constructive criticism to students. in drama programs at schools “… including NYU, Juilliard, Rutgers and UCLA”. [2] Some acting coaches use an “… approach and technique of acting training [that] are considered established, dramatic] work, “Such as using the” … methodology of Constantin Stanislavski , Stella Adler ,Lee Strasberg , and Sanford Meisner . ” [3]

Some acting coaches provide students with a DVD or SD card recording of their acting, for the student to review their progress.

Notable individuals

Working conditions

Acting coaches may be freelancers who are hired for an hourly or daily rate, or they may be hired on a longer-term basis by a studio film , production company or theater company . Some acting coaches have developed their own unique methods and founded their own acting schools. Acting coaches’ income varies a great deal from one coach to another. For example, an acting coach providing training to a community theater troupe or a high school musical earns much less than an acting coach training top Hollywood celebrities. Acting classes are often provided in person; However, with the availability of high-speed Internet, some coaches offer online mentoring over Skypeor other video linkups. Acting coaches may offer private coaching, group sessions or a combination of both.

Other roles

In some cases, acting coaches are hired to train singers in acting skills. Popular music singers may be used for their live performances, which sometimes include staged sequences, and for performing in music videos . For example, Goth-rocker Amy Lee was provided with an acting coach by her record label. In Classical Music , Singers performing staged operascan get help from an acting coach to prepare them for their roles. Sometimes CEOs and other leaders hire acting coaches to help them improve their performance of speeches and other general communications activities. While most acting mentor actors coaches, some also coach directors on how to improve their leadership of actors. Some of the key actors in the field of audition, the role of agents, the role of agents, the key actor terminology (eg, ” callback ” auditions), and the important industry organizations.